The Habits and Philosophy of an Effective iPad Teacher

Canada and New Zealand team up to discuss effective iPad Teaching!

I recently had the pleasure of connecting up with Richard Wells from Auckland, New Zealand through Twitter. He runs a similar iPad site: ipad4schools.org. I was very impressed with many of recent his info-graphics, and pitched him the idea to collaborate together on this poster. Despite the nineteen hour time difference, we were able to discuss our ideas about what it takes to be an effective iPad teacher. Within a few days, he used his impressive design skills to create what you see below:

Expanding on a few of my points:

Goals: Do not use an iPad in your lesson just for the sake of it. It is not meant to be something to impress them. Know why you are using it, and the purpose behind it. Is your iPad the best way to share your knowledge of the particular topic at the time? Then by all means, utilize it to its full potential.

Creative: It is my ongoing goal to strongly propose that the iPad as a creation device as opposed to a consumption one. The iPad, while not a direct PC replacement for the uninitiated, can do more than you think it can. Please take a second to share with us if you have any groundbreaking ideas for creating powerful projects with the iPad, or if you have already created works worth sharing. I would be more than happy to blog about them. Check out thispost for some of the apps that my school is using to make both student and teacher creations.

Beyond iPad: Despite both Richard and I being huge proponents for the iPad in education, it is not the only capable tool. if you already are passionate about other tablets, or know people who are, by all means go with it. I would suggest ensuring having someone on staff who is an expert on those other devices. For example, it’s probably not the best idea to go and purchase a class set of MS Surface tablets for your school if no one has any experience with them. You might run into trouble-shooting problems, and it will be difficult to find someone readily assist you in your campus.

I look forward to collaborating with Richard again in the future, and also have lined up some future collaborations with other prominent iPad bloggers. It certainly is an exciting venture to meet and work with passionate people in this realm of education!

To download a high-resolution PDF of the image, click here. Feel free to print it and share with your staff!

Further Reading: Please check Richard’s post and poster on the “iPad First Five”.